He blinked towards the blood red sun.
His body, shattered, torn apart, riddled with bullets still tried to lift itself from the muddy ground. It hadn't rained in days.
He tried to laugh, but only managed to voice a pathetic gurgling noise through the blood and shattered teeth.
Finally it had been done.
He, the ghost, the hunter, the reaper, death, had been defeated. His body had performed admirably. It had stood upright as the shells ripped his men apart and had merely shuddered when projectiles ripped into his flesh, so it was only fair of him to let it rest.
The guardian, the sentinel, the army of one, lay broken and surrounded by his slayers.
Dozens stood there, while hundreds moaned in agony, propped up on rifles and crutches or lay still forever.
A figure came in his clouding view, an officer with strange equipment on his harness and helmet, a pistol clutched in his hand. He wanted to congratulate him and his men, but only managed to gurgle more blood through his mouth and nose. He tried to sit again, only to hear his splintered bones crack and protest from within him.
He instead opted to show the officer a toothless grin, half in an attempt to mock him, half the contrary.
"Held it for quite some time, huh boy?" The officer said lowly and out of breath.
"Entire regiments swallowed in the attempt to take it from you. You don't appreciate being robbed, do you."
The man on the ground tried to chuckle, but again to no avail. He did appreciate their tenacity and their readiness to sacrifice thousands of lives just to get past him. Their resolve to doom the whole human race was truly admirably.
From the corner of his eye he saw the troopers, fools enter his station, the shrine, the abyss. He couldn't hinder them, he slowly became just another spirit in the void, without a chance to uphold his mission.
Not long before the cracks of gunfire were heard again, quickly followed by fearful screams of agony. He managed to turn his head to the entrance of the shrine, almost severing his spine in the process and saw it.
Hundreds of thousands of black tendrils shot from the gate. Dark energy penetrating every man, thing, grain of sand. The officer above him was screaming a command and was ripped to pieces by the black swirling tendrils. It was out. It would devour this world and perish around it, casting the surface in dead air and rot.
It was soon upon him, a shape of a young woman, levitating within the turning mass of dark. A shine in the shadow, that was illuminating everything except for him. She was the light in chains, he was the liberated dark, it had been so long.
He felt himself being picked up, upright to face her and formed a weak smile. She too smiled. A smile of unending sadness as tears streamed down her beautiful face.
'I'm so sorry.' She mouthed and he did too, not a second before he too was shredded to pieces from her might.
He had failed her.
LXVI_
Grimm had been swarming the forests around Vale for as long as historians bothered to keep up with. Beyond the walls of the four kingdoms, Remnant was a dangerous world under its shattered moon. Bandits prowled the wastes and thick woods and the creatures of the dark, the Grimm, did very much the same. Chances were, you'd only meet one of the former at a time, as Grimm would scare bandits away pretty reliably.
Right now, Grimm were turning the forests of Vale upside down. It had become increasingly dangerous to traverse these areas and there were still settlements outside the walls, so something had to be done.
Beacon was Vales biggest and most prestigious combat academy and had produced a great number of effective fighters. Huntsmen and huntresses those were called, as it was their primary duty to keep the dark creatures of Grimm in check. Unlike a military, huntsmen used their personal fighting styles and weaponry and worked in teams mostly, which made them highly effective combatants in a wide variety of situations.
Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon sat in his office within the massive gears of Beacon tower, following the progress of one of his teams, he had sent out to thin out the Grimm's lines and if possible find the source for the unusual behaviour.
Team RWBY was consisting of the leader, sixteen year old Ruby Rose, her two years older sister Yang Xiao Long, the SDC's heiress Weiss Schnee and lastly the young faunus woman Blake Belladonna.
They were making remarkable progress, destroying more enemy clusters as most other teams. Ozpin had only sent teams out, which stood out in their combat abilities and RWBY was one of the most gifted. They weren't alone though.
In other sectors of the forest, team JNPR and CFVY were working towards the same goal.
His gaze fell back to RWBY who had stopped in a large clearing. He tried reaching them per his radio, but all he got was static. They were okay though, as their aura levels suggested. He would trust them to keep themselves safe but a bit of caution had never hurt anyone, so he made contact with the other two teams and directed them toward team RWBY.
Ruby, cautiously stepped between two large beowulfs which seemed to be either dazed or not interested in the young woman, which was highly uncommon as Grimm normally attacked any human life on sight and couldn't be intimidated. Next to her, her partner Weiss stabbed a creep in the head, killing it without any attempts of defending itself. These Grimm seemed almost comatose, helpless in a way.
"I seriously don't like this, sis." Yang exclaimed from Ruby's left.
The clearing was filled with different kinds of Grimm, curled together, kneeling or standing with their heads lowered. They seemed to be facing towards the middle of the space, but whatever was there they couldn't see it yet.
Cautiously, not to stir any of the creatures from their inactivity, if that was even possible, they closed in on the center of the circle of Grimm and then, just stood there.
A huge vault stuck in the ground, as if dropped from the sky. It looked a lot like their rocket propelled lockers, in which they could store supplies for lengthy missions or when they were in a tight spot. Only this looked heavier, thicker, with a complex locking mechanism. A scripture had been engraved into the front in clean, practical font and Ruby took a few steps forward to read it to the rest of the girls who had set up a perimeter around the vault.
SCP-5551
-66
CLEARANCE LVL 6 REQUIRED
Read containment procedures before proceeding.
Then under it, clearly scratched into the metal.
Descendant of Able
Thy body shall lie
Thy rest shall be eternal
May we never need you again.
"This is kinda creepy." The red hooded girl muttered. She started to look the vault over again and found a lever on the side of the metal box.
"Ruby! What are you doing?" Weiss whispered yelled as she spotted the girl reach for the lever.
"We need to know what's inside. It may be the reason for all the Grimm out here." She answered, waiting for an approval from the others.
"We should be able to get to the treetops fast enough if something goes wrong." Blake said. "Ruby should open it, she is the fastest. We three could get ready to run or fight, whatever seems more safe."
"Okay." Came from Weiss and Yang simultaneously as they took a defensive stance.
Ruby just nodded and grabbed for the lever.
It seemed to be stuck a bit, as she had to apply a bit of force to it before it depressed and set an internal mechanism in motion. A series of mechanical noises rang through the vault and a hissing escaped it's cracks, accompanied by faint mist that faded to the ground.
LXVI_
The black nothing around him was beautiful, yet terrifying. Comforting but horrible.
He seemed to float, stand, lie, fall, all at the same time. He had accustomed to this new sensation, had finished dying and could now vanish without a regret.
But he didn't.
Instead he waited, for an eternity, forever before something drew his strained attention towards an anomaly in the void. Sirens blared from outside, which was remarkable, considering he didn't even have eyes or ears anymore. The sirens went on for as much or as little time as was needed before a dull light had ignited in the middle.
He sensed the outside, felt the air, the warmth. He smelled something faint like roses and something like wet fur as he slowly drifted at the small star and was finally enveloped in it's searing fire.
It had started to rain around RWBY as the mechanism had finally finished working and the vault's door, slowly, on itself, began to swing open, revealing something that the four girls could only compare to an ocean's horizon on a moon and starless night. An abyss so deep, it seemed to swallow any and all light that tried to illuminate the inside of the metal box.
They stood in awe and shock before what could only be described as a segment of true nothingness. As one they looked away, a feeling of nausea beginning to form in their heads. They did so for a few seconds until a heavy thump was heard from behind them, from the void.
The vault was still empty, but not full of the nether as it had been before. Instead the could now see the inside of the thing. Plain steel surfaces, unremarkable in any way, but something lay before it.
It was a young man.
He couldn't be much older than Weiss, Yang and Blake, but he seemed off somehow, as if he didn't belong here.
He was clad in a grey overall on which in white the letters LXVI were printed. The same letters could be found on the inside of his right wrist, tattooed on his smooth, sickly pale skin. Dark, greying black hair fell over his forehead, making it difficult to make out the upper part of his face.
"...by, Yang, Weiss, Blake? You receive me? The Grimm are moving again! You need to bail, now!"
The voice of Coco Adel, the leader of team CFVY snared over the radio of the girls, just as a nevermore above them voiced a piercing scream, that seemingly awoke the other Grimm in the clearing from their sleep.
Black furred bodies started to move around them, making the girls turn around and take a defensive stance.
"Ruby! We have to get out of here!" Weiss said over the rising growls of the creatures.
She had drawn her rapier and made to stand beside her partner while Yang and Blake did the same to their right.
"Yang! Grab the guy and let's move!"
Ruby yelled to her sister, while extending her sniper scythe 'crescent rose'.
"Yang?"
"He's gone!" The blonde brawler answered her little sister.
"What?"
"He's not here! We have to move!" Yang exclaimed just as a large ursa made to lunge for her. She dodged the massive claws and immediately retaliated with a buckshot powered punch to its face.
Then, hell broke loose.
"Coco! Jaune! We're pulling back. We think we found the objective! We're regrouping back at Beacon cliff!"
She received an affirmative from each team leader before every Grimm in the clearing charged at the armed teenagers, roaring and clawing the ground as dozens of dark bodies got moving.
Team RWBY dashed off, any direction as good as the other while they dodged and weaved through the tide, while occasionally parrying and slashing out. They had just reached the end of the clearing as the heard a massive screech, much too close for comfort.
"Nevermore!" Blake yelled roping herself up to a higher branch of one of the massive trees. Yang, Weiss and Ruby followed close behind and spotted the giant creature, just setting down at the foot of their tree.
"Open fire! Distract it, we need to move deeper into the woods, otherwise we will never lose that!"
Ruby called out, racking her weapon's bolt and taking aim at the giant crowlike creature.
The nevermore, before she managed to take a shot, let out another ear ringing scream and started thrashing around, making all four of the girls hesitate in their attack, before they realised what was happening.
Slowly, almost agonisingly, the nevermores head bent back, before a grey sleeved arm wrapped around to its throat. A pale hand opened and seemed to linger for a fraction of a second,
before clasping shut on the nevermores throat, immediately silencing its howls. Fingers dug into the dark flesh and almost closed to a fist, before the arm yanked back, ripping an enormous portion out of the creature's throat and breaking its neck in the process. The Grimm tumbled to the ground, black icor oozing from its demolished windpipe and as the head finally dropped, the girls saw the pale young man, standing atop the corpse of the bird-Grimm, staring squarely into them. His eyes were empty, almost white in color and each dotted with a massively widened pupil, that seemed to dilate wildly, while focusing on each of the huntresses.
Another Grimm, a smaller Ursa jumped atop the Nevermore and tried to get the drop on the dark haired man, only for him to turn around and brutally punching his fist through one of the creatures eyes, making it go limp within a second. Not a sound was heard from him.
"Uuh… hey?" Ruby said nervously, raising a hand for a weak wave.
He whirled around, his arms and torso still covered in dark, vaporising blood, as he fixed his gaze on the young girl.
"Move!" It was more a low growl than a yell, but each one was clearly able to understand him and it chilled them to the core.
LXVI_
He didn't question the presence of either these girls, nor of the black creatures with the white bone masks. He watched them take off and took note of the direction they were going.
He knew nothing. Not his name, not where he was, why or how. He knew not what time it was, what year. He couldn't even remember himself. He didn't question it though. It felt as if these information would come to him. Even if it just was on a need to know basis, like how to kill.
He had realized as he had dashed after the four ladies, that the dispatch of creatures took little effort from his side. Not that it wasn't taxing though. He had eliminated about five or four of these things and his arm felt weird. He already knew, that, without tools at least, he wouldn't live to see their end. He would come back later to clear this place.
Silently he took off into the direction of the four girls, occasionally tearing through another dark beast. He felt weak, nauseous, but couldn't determine the cause for it, as his blood was still coursing with adrenaline.
They were fast, he had to give them that. The red one with the silver eyes seemed to teleport between short distances, leaving a trail of rose petals behind every here and there. The blonde one propelled herself forward in intervals, using the recoil of shotgun blasts, he identified, the black and white one swung through the woods using her black ribbon with practised ease while the second most peculiar, besides the teleporting girl was the white haired girl. She used… magic? Some sorts of seal to propel herself.
He could only run. Sure he was a fast sprinter, but he soon lost them in his pursuit. Their direction still hadn't changed though as he noticed from the faint trails that the squadron left behind in the forest.
The growls behind him had mostly subsided, only sometimes a faint noise was heard from behind him. He slowed his sprint to a relaxed jog and immediately felt the pain in his arm. The punch through the first beasts head had shattered his arm and hand. Cradling his arm he kept on walking.
Not far from him, about five hundred meters towards his twelve, rose a steep cliff about one hundred and fifty meters upwards and up there, he saw a grey haired man in a black suit, looking down towards him.
LXVI_
Ruby was nervous. All the way from the clearing to Beacon cliff, she had felt a pang of guilt. It hadn't felt right leaving the boy behind so they could flee to safety. Now he was with professor Ozpin and he was hurt, because of her. Team RWBY had been sitting in front of the headmaster's office for quite some time now, as Glynda Goodwitch, professor Ozpin's right hand, stepped outside.
"The young man is fine. His arm is a little bruised, but he explicitly explained the situation to us and we have come to the conclusion that you have performed admirably."
"Who is he?" Blake asked curiously.
"That-" Ms. Goodwitch hesitated for a moment before continuing.
"That is unclear at the moment. He doesn't seem to remember all that much."
"He's an amnesiac? But he obliterated that Nevermore with nothing but his bare hands." Ruby said with clear astonishment in her voice. The fact that a human could just snap a bigger Grimm's neck was nothing if not a bit scary.
"Right now I am going to look into the tattoo on his wrist. LXVI sounds a lot like a team name to me and Ozpin.
"You will be notified if we find something, but right now, I'd like you four to meet with him and the headmaster. There are a few things he wishes to discuss with you."
She stepped away from the door to let the four girls in, then she closed the door behind them.
"Ah! Miss Rose and miss Xiao Long, miss Schnee and miss Belladona." Ozpin said, gesturing to each of the four team members, remaining seated at his desk while the young man had risen from his chair and turned to the girls.
"Pleasure to meet you." He said with a sheepish smile and extended his hand. He made a small bow every time he shook one of their hands.
Now was the first time that the members of team RWBY actually saw who they had met in the forest.
He was still wearing the grey jumpsuit with the white letters and his sleeves were rolled up, revealing the tattoo on his right wrist and the blueish marks on the arm with which he had killed the second Grimm.
he was slender and tall, taller than professor Ozpin even, but his posture was slightly hunched over and Blake in particular noticed that his knees were slightly bent at all times. His hair was dark, almost black, but with grey strands shimmering through every now and then.
The eyes. They looked sad, completely different to when they met in the woods. There, his eyes looked empty of all emotions except for pure controlled rage.
"Hey I'm Ruby. Just... like the Headmaster said. I mean, he already said that... our names." Ruby began to stutter, making her sister chuckle at her awkwardness.
"She wants to know your name. We're all very grateful for the stunt you pulled back in the woods. So yeah." Yang spoke for Ruby, shrugging her shoulders.
"Yeah that's... to be honest, I don't even know my name. It's just not there, like I never had one."
"Oh..." Ruby said nervously. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to be rude, please don't think..."
"It's fine, really." A small smile on his face.
A moment of silence fell on the room before blake spoke up again.
"What's with your tattoo? Could that be your team?"
"What? with this?" He raised his wrist to look at the four letters.
"I think it's a number."
"Wait? A number made from letters?"
"Yes. Latin numbers." He said, straightforwardly. "L stands for a fifty, X for a ten, V for a five, and I or a one. I thought that was pretty common knowledge."
"Sixty six then." Professor Ozpin finally cut in from behind his desk.
"It surprises me, but even I didn't know of this code for numbers, as well as the fact that the term 'latin' doesn't sound familiar to me."
The young man seemed to be contemplating something but the seemingly dropped it and looked back up.
"I'm sure it'll come back soon enough. Pretty sure of that. It just doesn't seem wrong, strangely."
"Well I'm not calling you by a number, that's for sure." Yang said while crossing her arms.
"Yeah, but the letters could spell 'Levi' if you'd put an 'E' for the X." Ruby exclaimed, quite happy with her idea.
"You can't just name someone."
"Why not? I'm certainly okay with it." Levi shrugged his shoulders.
"Sounds better that just sixty six, that's for sure."
"Yeah!" Ruby struck a pose, making Levi raise an eyebrow.
"If that's okay with you... we'll still need a last name for you, if we want to give you the necessary credentials."
"The safe said 'descendant of Able', whoever that might be." Weiss said.
"Levi Able. I've heard stranger names back in Atlas."
"I can go with that." Levi said, turning to the headmaster. "And you can just make valid credentials for me?"
"It certainly would have to go through the responsible authorities but that would be possible. There's one more hurdle though. We'd need a valid adress for you."
"Oh."
"Which brings my case home. Not many people are able to take on any kind of Grimm empty handed, much less an adult nevermore. This school-" He gestured at nothing particular.
"-Beacon, is one of the most prestigious combat academies on Remnant. we could provide you with lodging and knowledge for the coming four years and we would be able to validate your existence until we find out who you really are."
He finished and intertwined his fingers, calmly assessing the young man, who had listened intently.
"This sounds very good. But I'd have to ask what you want in return. As you know, I own nothing that I could give in return."
He said, before Ruby piped up excitedly again.
"You would become protector of the people after you graduate the academy. Like us! Huntsmen and Huntresses. It's a bit like the police or military, but much better, because we are not as strictly obligated and muuch, much cooler!"
Huntsman.
Hunter.
He didn't know why the word meant so much for him, but he felt something peculiar upon hearing the term.
"So I'd have a home and education in exchange for my service as a huntsman in the future." He clarified upon which he received a nod from the professor and a smile from Ruby and Yang.
"I'd like to do that."
"Very well then, Mr. Levi Able-"
Welcome to Beacon.
